Quirky Item of the Day

So there I am sitting on the Metro today on the aisle seat of a two-seater. There’s a man sitting on the other aisle seat of the two-seater next to me. Two young ladies get on and stand next to the pole. I see the man lean over and reach is hand down towards the legs of one of the women. My first thoughts were, “Is this guy some kind of weirdo? Am I sitting next to a dirty old man? Is he trying to caress her leg??”.

Turns out, he was reaching for a tiny black beetle scurrying on the floor next to the woman’s shoes. He picked up the beetle and cupped his hand around it and held it in his fisted hand. He smiled at the man sitting in the single seat on my side and made a gesture that he was going to bring it outside. He got off at the next stop and presumably freed the creature so that it could live another day, or hour, or minute, before it got crushed under someone else’s shoe.
This was a first for me in all my years of taking the metro. I suppose the man must have been some kind of buddhist to try to save the life of one tiny beetle that wandered onto the metro. PETA would be proud. As the resident spider squisher/bug killer in my office, I was stunned that someone would make such an effort. Wow. Public transportation can be interesting if nothing else.

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7 Comments so far

  1. mare (unregistered) August 6th, 2006 9:40 pm

    Spiderds kill more bugs than you can catch. So killing spiders is contra productive.

  2. Christelle (unregistered) August 6th, 2006 11:10 pm

    But spiders are so ugly/scary! Especially when I was in Australia and saw these Huntsman spiders!!!!! Ugh! Wouldn’t want to live with them.

    But neat the man freed the bug!! :D

  3. Laiya (unregistered) August 7th, 2006 9:09 am

    I only kill spiders if they’re inside. Sorry, but visitors that drop by unannounced must be exterminated.

  4. Long Nguyen (unregistered) August 7th, 2006 11:17 am

    No surprise parties for you then. We would all be exterminated. Hehe.

  5. Martine (unregistered) August 7th, 2006 4:14 pm

    I’m glad your story had a happy ending. I was walking on St-Denis once and saw an older man (early sixties) walking in my direction. He looked perfectly normal but something in his expression worried me. As our paths crossed, I saw his hand move towards my crotch. (I was wearing a long skirt, not even a mini!) I managed to have the reflex to push his hand away just before he could reach his “goal”. He just kept walking like nothing had happened. How weird to be “attacked” by what looked like a respectable old man in the middle of the day on a busy street!

  6. sherry (unregistered) August 7th, 2006 10:17 pm

    That reminds me of a funny story from when I used to take Kung Fu downtown (across from MuchMusic). We always assumed the two instructors were Buddhist. The older brother once stooped and gently scooped up one of the many spiders that would enter the room. As we practiced our moves, he carefully cradled the spider and carried it out into the hall.

    And then he stomped on it. It took more self-control than you know to keep my laughter inside.

  7. sherry (unregistered) August 7th, 2006 10:18 pm

    Jeez. MusiquePlus, not MuchMusic. I guess I forgot what city I was in. :P


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